Mountain bike champs
KELLOGG – Although they’re 48 years apart, you wouldn’t know it by watching teenager Cody Dumont and 62-year-old Roger Baker ride Jackass or the Hammer, two of their favorite trails on Silver Mountain. Both ride with equal zeal and skill and both placed first at the state mountain bike downhill competition Aug. 18, at Tamarack, Idaho.
Both Dumont and Baker come decked out with body armor and a motorcycle-type helmet with goggles. They also wear padded gloves and stout boots, used when their foot goes down to brace them in cornering. Their bikes weigh 40-plus pounds, have an 8-inch suspension on the front and back tires and are equipped with heavy-duty brakes.
All this specialty gear is essential in the speed-induced, gravity-fed riding that is downhill racing. The Hammer trail starts with a jump which propels them up to 3 feet in the air, then descends through bank turns, more jumps and road-gaps, where, Dumont explains, the pros are pushing the limit of flying 50 feet through the air.
Both started riding two years ago. Dumont, 14, saw Baker riding on the ski hill and thought it would be fun to go with him. “Rodger took me on this ride, and I nearly died,” Dumont said.
The team worked out perfectly because Dumont was not allowed to ride the mountain by himself at the time. Today, it’s Baker who is grateful to keep up.
After two years of riding, Baker thought it would be fun to race. They signed up with the Nobby Tire series and competed in four of the five events that took place in Idaho. With each win they gained points; at the end of four races they had amassed enough points to become state winners even if they decided not to compete.
But they went anyway and it was the first race in which Dumont placed second. By winning state, they both can compete in nationals next year. “What’s exciting is nationals is going to take place at Tamarack,” said Baker. “This is big for Idaho.”
This year, neither had a lot of competitors in their age groups, but that will be changing. Next year, Dumont will compete in a new age group, and he plans to enter the expert division. Baker expects competition from a few 59-years-olds who will be 60 next year and in Baker’s 60-to-69-year division.
“All races are exciting,” Baker said. “Technically, the last two races put me at the edge of my ability. There were parts of each race I jumped off my bike and ran my bike down. I did not want to cartwheel over the handle bars like I did in a previous race. Unlike my little friend here,” referring to Dumont, “who rode them all.”
Dumont is serious about riding. During the summer, he spent a week at a Gravity Camp in Whistler, where a bunch of pros taught and he pushed his skills to the limit. “I was doing 10- to 12-foot drops, which is pretty scary, and big gaps by following the pros down.”
The hardest part on mountain biking, Dumont said, is overcoming fear.
“It’s the fear of doing it,” he said. “Like the steep and technical stuff, it’s probably hard for me but it’s your mind.”
“He’s absolutely right,” echoed Baker. “That is the most difficult thing. It is the mental part of riding. You have reasonable strength and balance but a large part of riding is the mental.”
Dumont plans on racing cross-country next year and would some day like to compete in the World Cup Race.
Baker’s long-range plans? “To get up in the morning.”
Meanwhile, they are both looking for sponsors. Dumont has a partial sponsorship by Silver Mountain which he hopes will work out into something more. “It’s a pricy sport,” said Baker. “You got race fees, traveling and the bikes themselves running around two-grand and up. Any help you get, is great.”
But one thing is for sure, even without sponsors, these two will be at nationals riding with the pros next year.